Amnesty International slams Pakistan on Kulbhushan Jadhav's death sentence

Amnesty International slams Pakistan on Kulbhushan Jadhav's death sentence

Awarding of death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan shows how the country's military court system rides "roughshod" over international standards, Amnesty International said.

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Santosh Chaubey

New Delhi

April 10, 2017

UPDATED: April 10, 2017 23:43 IST

Kulbhushan Jadhav

HIGHLIGHTS

Amnesty International has slammed Pak on death sentence given to Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Jadhav is the alleged Indian spy who was arrested by Pak in March 2016.

Amnesty International's India arm has questioned the way Pak's military courts function.

Amnesty International has slammed Pakistan on the death sentence given to Kulbhushan Jadhav, the alleged Indian spy who was arrested by Pakistan in March 2016. A military court in Pakistan has sentenced him to death for espionage, sabotage activities and waging war against Pakistan.

In a series of tweets, Amnesty International's India arm has questioned the way Pakistan's military courts function.

Amnesty says that Pakistan's military courts act against the established norms of jurisprudence with no access to charges and evidence against a person and sentence based on that given.

Under Pakistan's military courts, no info about charges or evidence against suspects, or sentences given, is made public. #KulbhushanJadhav

Reacting to the highhandedness and arbitrariness of Pakistan's military courts, Amnesty International's South Asia Director Biraj Patnaik has said that the death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav "shows yet again how Pakistan's military court system rides roughshod over international standards", a PTI report quoted him saying.
Amnesty India's tweets with the hashtag #KulbhushanJadhav say military courts should only be for maintaining the military discipline and the rest should be left for the judicial system, be it Pakistan or India or any country.

Military courts in Pakistan & other countries including India are only apt for military discipline, not any other crimes. #KulbhushanJadhav

Amnesty further said that 'that military courts are linked to coerced confessions, opaque processes and unfair trials'. "Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, military courts do not dispense justice but travesty it," Patnaik's statement read.

Pakistan's propaganda claims Jadhav is a serving Indian Navy officer while India has clarified that Jadhav was an ex-Navy officer and he had no link with the government. India has also maintained that Jadhav was abducted from Iran.